In 2012, there was significant growth in the number of operations in California, Iowa, and New England, and only slight growth in the number of operations in the southeastern United States. This map shows the concentration of organic operations within the U.S.

This is the eleventh installment of the Organic 101 series that explores different aspects of the USDA organic regulations.

We provide this information to the general public, including members of the organic industry, and update it annually. Through this online tool, you can search to see whether a particular operator is certified, find certified farms and operators in a particular state, or get a list of certified operators that produce a specific organic product.

The database also provides a way to identify and connect organic stakeholders across the supply chain, providing information about organic certifiers and organic operations, including the type of certification (such as crops, livestock, or handling) and their products. The list supports the growth of the organic industry by identifying organic operations with complementary needs, and by helping people who want to start an organic business find a certifier or a certified partner to work with.

Since 2002, there has been 240 percent growth in the number of certified organic operations. This chart illustrates the steady increase over the last 11 years.

While collecting the data for the list, we found that most of the U.S. certified organic operations are on the west coast, in New England, and in the upper Midwest. In 2012, there was significant growth in the number of operations in California, Iowa, and New England. There was only slight growth in the number of operations in the southeastern United States, and there were decreases in the number of operations in part of the Midwest and some Mountain states. Internationally, since 2010, there has also been a decrease in the number of operations in areas with equivalency agreements (Canada, European Union), as operations in these countries no longer need dual certification.

The list of certified operations increases the transparency and integrity of the organic system, allowing consumers and stakeholders to search for information pertaining to organic certification. The list also improves the ability of the NOP to assess the impacts of regulatory changes by providing data on the type of operations that might be affected, and increases the NOP’s ability to oversee accredited certifiers and ensure they are consistently implementing the USDA organic regulations, by providing greater visibility into the operations that certifiers work with.

The list of certified operations, which was first release in 2009, adds greater transparency to the program and helps to increase consumer confidence in the $32 billion U.S. organic industry. We hope that you find the latest update valuable as a resource and tool.

This is a great list, but it only shows the operations in the U.S. How can I find out if my green tea is really a USDA certified organic company if the growers are in China and the distributors are in California? I could not find the company I’m looking for in this NOP database.

Vegetable Barrel FLP, is in the planning stages (land purchased) to construct a 200′x200′ Farmers Market,to include, to start a two bay (144′x128)water farm … I have a planned “grow more farmers” program that I want to start with the local schools once up and running however,as I read more the USDA already has programs along the same lines … I would like to offer my help in any way to connect my planned orginic hydroponic vegetables with the local school programs or to start such a program … Baldwin County, Alabama, (Loxley)… thanks LLL